Under Japanese administration, Taiwan experienced rapid improvements in public health, industry, and education. Goto Shinpei’s policies aimed at eliminating discrimination—known at the time as “imperialization”—stand in stark contrast to later portrayals that reduce Japanese rule to oppression alone.

2017-06-20
This chapter examines how Japan’s colonial policy in Taiwan prioritized sanitation, education, and industrial development.
It challenges postwar narratives that portray these efforts solely as oppression.
By placing Taiwan’s experience in global historical context, the text highlights how unusual Japan’s emphasis on discrimination elimination was among colonial powers.

2017-06-20
This is a continuation of the previous chapter.
“Discrimination Elimination” Equals “Imperialization.”
Thanks to Goto, the living environment in Taiwan improved dramatically.
Before he succeeded in implementing sanitation improvement policies, his mother, who had accompanied General Nogi when he went to Taiwan after being appointed Governor-General, quickly contracted an endemic disease and died.
If conditions were that harsh even for the governor-general’s mother, it goes without saying how miserable the situation was for ordinary people.
Regarding Taiwan’s status as a camphor-producing region, the program portrayed the situation as if Japan had ruined it, but before Japanese rule it was merely a case of exploitation by Westerners, and Japan transformed Taiwan into a modern industrial society from that state.
Goto also succeeded in gradually eliminating the custom of opium smoking and in making sugar a key industry in Taiwan.
It is astonishing that there were Japanese who portrayed Goto unilaterally as a villain.
There were also claims that Taiwanese were discriminated against by Japanese.
Of course, there may have been discrimination in the early stages.
However, such discrimination was of a nature that diminished over time.
The guiding principle of the Japanese government was the elimination of discrimination, which at the time was referred to as “imperialization.”
In the United States, the elimination of discrimination was only legislated in the 1970s, that is, nearly two hundred years after the nation’s founding.
I am unaware of Britain or France ever adopting the elimination of discrimination in their colonies as a guiding principle.
In the period immediately following colonization, various forms of turmoil naturally occur.
Even under such circumstances, Japan made efforts to improve Taiwan, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that Taiwan became the region whose level of civilization rose the fastest.
This is also evident from the testimony of Mr. Ko mentioned earlier.
Japan also devoted considerable effort to education in Taiwan, establishing an imperial university there earlier than in Nagoya, despite the enormous cost involved.
That university was Taihoku Imperial University.
The program repeatedly emphasized that only three percent of Taiwanese were admitted to the former Taihoku First Middle School, but that number must have steadily increased thereafter.
Moreover, at the time, even among Japanese males within Japan, only one out of ten could attend a former middle school.
The fact that as many as three percent were admitted from the outset can instead be regarded as remarkable.
Because Japan invested heavily in Taiwanese education, within about thirty years Taiwanese came to look down upon mainland China, which they had once regarded as a “barbaric land.”
When Deng Xiaoping observed China growing ever poorer due to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, and at the same time saw Taiwan entering the living standards of a prosperous first-rate nation, he changed his policies.
Taiwan had become an object of admiration for the mainland.
To be continued.